Learner Stories: Elizabeth Carter, MS

Finance Director, The Hartford

Elizabeth Carter doesn't just cross disciplines, she crosses the boundaries between work and education in inspiring ways. And in the process of doing her course work at Capella University, she has changed the way The Hartford does business.

Throughout her work on her master's degree, Carter has taken her courseroom projects and implemented them at one of the nation's largest insurance companies.

With one foot in the world of numbers and spreadsheets, Carter became more interested in training and performance after developing financial acumen training courses for underwriting employees of The Hartford.

As a result, Carter developed performance tools as part of her classes, always with an eye on what was going on at work. Her work-based projects include:

• A needs assessment of competencies and skill gaps in a recently reorganized finance team
• A new hire/transition toolkit that helped outgoing employees organize their work processes for a smooth handoff
• Developing a survey to address process improvements for finance and using focus groups to create short- and long-term solutions

In addition to her financial background and her training course work, Carter has also developed marketing skills as membership director for her local CPCU (Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters) Society. The plan she developed to boost membership and participation—developed during one of her Capella courses—put her on the CPCU's national task force on membership. She participated in strategy development at the society's national meeting in September 2006.

As a professional with financial, training, and marketing skills, Carter sees herself growing into a leadership position in the training field. "I decided to go for a more formal training degree because I enjoyed the knowledge transfer aspect of training," she says. "I want people to do well in their job, and sometimes they don't have the tools to do it."